This is what I call "quail boot camp"

[talldarkeyes]

Yesterday we picked up 4 Coturnix chicks and 12 adults, tibetans and browns(?). We were supposed to get 3:9 ratio of males:females but ended up half and half. Those poor girls! They were miserable and one female, the smallest, looks pretty beat up so we isolated her and we are hoping for the best. I think she might have lost her mind though. We also needed to get the number of roo's down to 2 so we did some culling. So in less than 24 hours I have set up a brooder, cleaned chick vents, sexed adults, collected 4 eggs and sent 4 roo's to the fridge for dinner tomorrow night. What a day...

but we did it.

Now for some questions based on my first 24 hours: I really like the browns but not the Tibetans so much; they were very aggressive and small considering they were born in January (even for quail). I think I would like to add some gentle jumbo's to my flock so if anyone sells them PM me please?

Also, the abused female (no blood just lost a lot of feathers) what is the best thing to do for her. She is obviously spooked, but seems to have calmed down after being isolated. Any advice?

Thanks for all the help so far! This has been amazing!

 

[joe125]

Welcome to coturnix quail!
First off, if you had just set and hatched eggs on your own, you would get a basic 50/50 split, so the breeder didn't do you any favors. They are not beer sexing their Tibetans properly

It's MHO, that browns are the new black as far as coturnix goes. I'm currently refitting my production stock to jumbo browns, and replacing most of my jumbo whites with browns. I will always have as many different color coturnix, as pen space allows, but as far as meat and egg production goes....Nothing wrong with the browns!

Now...your hen with the missing head feathers......Not a problem! She is just voluptuous to the roo/roos that mount her, and when the tide turns....She will be pecking out the eyes of the lazy roos. It's really hard to troubleshoot specific coturnix behavior. It's not like I don't have some bald hens on my property!

 

[talldarkeyes]

The hen lost not only her head feathers but most of her neck feathers and many on her back! I am all for free love with quail but that was a little more than I could handle. Jumbo browns huh? I'd like some whites too; is there any disadvantage to them or just personal preference? I want to keep my flock at about 20 at the most in order to stay below the HOA radar.

Can I start giving them weed treats yet? I am planting a bunch of greens to share with them in my garden but there are plenty of weeds right now to share! What types of vegetation do they like best?

 

[shelleyd2008]

You can give them weeds as treats, they love them

The only downside to jumbos that I can think of is the amount of feed they eat. If you want them for meat/eggs for yourself, then no problem. But if you're like me (can't bear to eat or kill anything I've raised) and just have them for resale then the jumbos aren't so good. In this area jumbo-sized birds and pharaoh-sized birds sell for the same price.